Jazz Legend Buster Williams to Perform from New CD at Jazz Showcase

CHICAGO – Jazz enthusiasts are in for a real treat when the Buster Williams Quartet performs at the Jazz Showcase March 29 to April 3. Williams, who has a new CD and will be featured in the spring edition of “Jazz Improv Magazine,” is on an international tour that includes stops in Spain and Italy.

His big, deep, resilient and inventive playing has made him the bassist of choice throughout the jazz world. Jazz fans will not want to miss this great opportunity to hear one of the legends of modern jazz perform music from his newest CD, “Griot Liberte.”

The Buster Williams Quartet will perform March 29 - April 3 at the Jazz Showcase, 59 West Grand Ave., Chicago. Show times are 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. on March 29 - 31, 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. on April 1 and 2, and Sunday April 3 there will be performances at 4 p.m., 8 p.m., and 10 p.m.

Williams is a prodigious artist whose playing knows no limits. He has played, recorded and collaborated with jazz giants such as Art Blakey, Betty Carter, Carmen McRae, Chet Baker, Chick Corea, Dexter Gordon, Jimmy Heath, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt, Herbie Hancock, Larry Coryell, Lee Konitz, McCoy Tyner, Illinois Jacquet, Nancy Wilson, Elvin Jones, Miles Davis, the Jazz Crusaders, Ron Carter, Woody Shaw, Sarah Vaughan, Benny Golson, Mary Lou Williams, Hank Jones, Lee Morgan, Jimmy Rowles, Hampton Hawes, Cedar Walton, Bobby Hutcherson, Billy Taylor, Sonny Rollins, Count Basie, Errol Garner, Kenny Barron, Charlie Rouse, Dakota Staton, Kenny Dorham, Freddie Hubbard, and many more.

Awards include a Grammy nomination in 1979; the Min-On Art Award; the SGI Glory Award the SGI Cultural Award; the RVC Corporation RCA Best Seller Award; NEA recipient; New York Fellowship Grant; 5 Stars from Downbeat magazine for the album "Crystal Reflections" listed in Who's Who in Black America; and numerous proclamations.

Recently released, a selection from the “Griot Liberte” CD can be sampled on his web site at www.BusterWilliams.com.

Williams said the songs he composed for “Griot Liberte” are an expression of his life, and were inspired by the experience of his wife who suffered through a major illness and then recovery.

“The ‘griot’ is this storyteller that liberates the soul and the spirit. To be liberated is to express yourself as you see it, to have no qualms, to be able to lay your head down on your pillow at night and go to sleep instantly because your day has been fulfilled with victory. The real victory we seek is how to defeat our own devils – our own limitations,” explained Williams.

Joining Williams are Lenny White on drums, George Colligan on piano, and Stefon Harris on the vibes and marimba.

Charles Anthony Williams, Jr. (nickname: Buster) was born in Camden, New Jersey on April 17, 1942. His mother, Gladys worked as a seamstress and his father, Charles Anthony Williams, Sr. (nick-name: Cholly), a bassist, worked various day jobs to support his five children, and at night played gigs to support his musical spirit.

“My father was my teacher. He would prepare my lessons for me,'” Buster recalls, “and when I got home from school I was supposed to practice, then he would listen while he was eating his dinner. It was an unwritten law that I had to play it right or hear about it. I was going to be the best. I had no choice. In those days, instead of a two car family, we were a two bass family.”

After working almost continuously for 30 years as a sideman, Williams says he decided it was time to “take the plunge, step up to the front, play my music, and express my concept of a cohesive musical unit. I've served my apprenticeship under many great masters and feel that it's my honor and privilege to carry on the lineage that makes this music such an artistically rich art form.”

Contact:
Pamela Riley, publicist
614-937-1886
prileypublicity@yahoo.com